Lincoln's Little Blue Pills
July 17, 2001 - Cast in bronze, Abraham Lincoln's likeness gazes at tourists over the Washington Mall. The weight of Civil War America forever rests on his narrow shoulders.
Lincoln's steadiness during national turmoil covered his own internal battle with depression. But a new study suggests that for a brief time during his pre-presidential years, colleagues saw him fly into uncharacteristic fits of rage.
Mercury poisoning -- caused by a treatment for depression -- may have triggered these bizarre mood swings, says the study's author Norbert Hirschhorn, MD, a retired public health physician and medical historian. His paper is published in the recent issue of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.
In his paper, Hirschhorn sifts through numerous historical accounts of the late president's actions during the late 1850s, tying them with new information on medicine Lincoln took during those years -- something called "blue mass" or "blue pill," he tells WebMD. "It was quite commonly prescribed in the 19th century for a number of ailments, everything from pain to liver problems to migraine headaches and melancholia."
Most historians have assumed that Lincoln took the pills daily for constipation, says Hirschhorn. But in his paper, he provides the first chemical analysis of those pills, showing that they contain extremely high levels of mercury -- nearly 40 times higher than current Environmental Protection Agency standards allow. And the mercury was ground into very fine particles, so it was absorbed quickly into the intestine.
"It was a very poisonous dose, very toxic," Hirschhorn tells WebMD.
In following the medical logic of 19th century America, any disorder was treated with an irritant like mercury, which even then was recognized as a poison, he says. "It was called alterative medicine, the theory that a poison would stimulate and flush out the liver and the brain, generally get things moving."
In Lincoln's case, the high daily doses of mercury backfired, "made his melancholia, his depression, worse," he tells WebMD. It took him from someone with mood swings -- who could change from a jovial storyteller to "the very picture of dejection and gloom" -- to a man capable of angry outbursts and "bizarre behavior," says Hirschhorn.
Lincoln's Little Blue Pills
July 17, 2001 - Cast in bronze, Abraham Lincoln's likeness gazes at tourists over the Washington Mall. The weight of Civil War America forever rests on his narrow shoulders.
Lincoln's steadiness during national turmoil covered his own internal battle with depression. But a new study suggests that for a brief time during his pre-presidential years, colleagues saw him fly into uncharacteristic fits of rage.
Mercury poisoning -- caused by a treatment for depression -- may have triggered these bizarre mood swings, says the study's author Norbert Hirschhorn, MD, a retired public health physician and medical historian. His paper is published in the recent issue of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.
In his paper, Hirschhorn sifts through numerous historical accounts of the late president's actions during the late 1850s, tying them with new information on medicine Lincoln took during those years -- something called "blue mass" or "blue pill," he tells WebMD. "It was quite commonly prescribed in the 19th century for a number of ailments, everything from pain to liver problems to migraine headaches and melancholia."
Most historians have assumed that Lincoln took the pills daily for constipation, says Hirschhorn. But in his paper, he provides the first chemical analysis of those pills, showing that they contain extremely high levels of mercury -- nearly 40 times higher than current Environmental Protection Agency standards allow. And the mercury was ground into very fine particles, so it was absorbed quickly into the intestine.
"It was a very poisonous dose, very toxic," Hirschhorn tells WebMD.
In following the medical logic of 19th century America, any disorder was treated with an irritant like mercury, which even then was recognized as a poison, he says. "It was called alterative medicine, the theory that a poison would stimulate and flush out the liver and the brain, generally get things moving."
In Lincoln's case, the high daily doses of mercury backfired, "made his melancholia, his depression, worse," he tells WebMD. It took him from someone with mood swings -- who could change from a jovial storyteller to "the very picture of dejection and gloom" -- to a man capable of angry outbursts and "bizarre behavior," says Hirschhorn.
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